Spontaneous local culture sightings and experiences

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Fifty years ago I was a young instructor at McMaster university having lunch in an on campus restaurant when a man came in and took a seat at an adjacent table. I went over and said "Sir, you were my MLA, my premier, my MP and you spoke at my high school graduation. Would you join me for lunch?" Tommy Douglas graciously accepted.
 
Was just reading, also...by the looks of the headlines, there seems to be a heck of a lot more crime, most worryingly violent crimes, in this sleepy neighbourhood...not far from where I went to school...that would've been almost unthinkable back then. More than I would read about in a week in my former big city urban neighbourhood (hopefully just a rare week). It's economically related at the root, I think - thinking of the timespan (thanks neoliberal capitalism). It's the huge disparity between wealth and abject poverty that has emerged since then. Nothing to do with immigration or right wing concerns - as the population here is still majority white and so are the people committing the crimes.

A man suspected of a violent crime across town was arrested in a park area right near the school I went to - in what has been a very quiet neighbourhood - where I used to hang out with my friends. One of them lived in a house right at the edge of that park.

(Not a response to your post JRT - we were posting at the same time)
 
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I guess there was always crime here...but in the "inner city" (as much as this place has one). I suppose it's a small enough city, that's not exactly far away...as the population grows things change.
 
The bear kinda looked around but didn't stop first. Still it seems to know that crossing is a risk. Also, missed the last couple of seconds the first time - but looks like it was turning left, not headed to the house that I mentioned - but still too close for comfort to the homes!
 
I'm kind've experiencing Harar's book on SAPIENS ...

I'm at the point where he is discussing homo sapiens discovering ignorance and it's use. Is that wise?

Funny point is that sapiens is said to have meant wisdom ... and gods are created to indicate what it is like without sapiens!

In the sense of an alternate god ... would, by that point some cognizance have arisen about what we might have learned by quantum methods in chance space? Recall such things remain dark, abstract and mysterious as myths!

One has to be curious about what opposes ignorance ... and what powers would be raised to offset complexity!

Confuses mei, moi and de Moira as they clip along through the large fabric we call the vale of time ... a deep thingy!

Even God's Book speaks of Rippers in such tapestries ... they sometimes have an incident in the temple when light leaks in ... thus the fracture item! Bones soften with age and then strange thoughts creep in of all varieties ... and we're told it is all God's essence ... abstract/unseen!

There are even words for such things in the dark ... given there is simplicity offered ... will homosapiens choose complexity given the tyranical role'n? Eire cases of the Egyptian NUT!
 
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People say they experience life as sane ... do you find it quite the opposite for a great portion of homo sapiens that is cannibalized by tyranny?

Seems an odd experience in the great domain of God that is out-there! Few look that far for fear of being labeled as a seer or a person of prescience ... those that see IT coming ... things that have to be arrested as self-destructive! Excess passions/emotions ... be still and listen to the sound of nothing doing! Does it make a slurpee sound? Watch for the splatter ... get beyond it ...

Even time triad IT ... and run off with our informational past!
 
Fifty years ago I was a young instructor at McMaster university having lunch in an on campus restaurant when a man came in and took a seat at an adjacent table. I went over and said "Sir, you were my MLA, my premier, my MP and you spoke at my high school graduation. Would you join me for lunch?" Tommy Douglas graciously accepted.

Closest I came to this was Dad and I chatting with the then Mayor of Kitchener during a concert intermission back in the eighties. Nice guy and a decent mayor as these things go. Lasted a long time in office, too.
 
I had an encounter with John Diefenbaker like that ... now I am a fairly large framed person ... but John was something else ... like John Wayne ... overbearing? I couldn;t carry either ...
 
I was at a bus stop downtown this evening, and the bus was about to pull up. I stepped one step closer, toward the bus stop sign so the driver could see that I need to get on with my walker. I was about 2.5 feet from the curb, and a young woman, coming from my right side blind spot, steps right in front of me - so she’s between me and the curb - and trips on one of the front wheels of my walker. She was busy looking down at her phone, walking and texting, and I don’t even think she noticed me there at all! Oblivious. She landed on both feet and kept walking to the left of me a couple of steps. I let out a spontaneous, incredulous chuckle/ sneer (not that it was funny but because it was careless, and that’s the sound that just came out of me). Then she apologized and it was all fine (it was she who could’ve gotten hurt or run over by the bus though)...jeez...people don’t look where they’re going. It would’ve been awful if she, or any of her limbs, had fallen over the curb just as the bus was pulling up! I shudder to think of it.
 
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I was at a bus stop downtown this evening, and the bus was about to pull up. I stepped one step closer, toward the bus stop sign so the driver could see that I need to get on with my walker. I was about 2.5 feet from the curb, and a young woman, coming from my right side blind spot, steps right in front of me - so she’s between me and the curb - and trips on one of the front wheels of my walker. She was busy looking down at her phone, walking and texting, and I don’t even think she noticed me there at all! Oblivious. She landed on both feet and kept walking to the left of me a couple of steps. I let out a spontaneous, incredulous chuckle/ sneer (not that it was funny but because it was careless, and that’s the sound that just came out of me). Then she apologized and it was all fine (it was she who could’ve gotten hurt or run over by the bus though)...jeez...people don’t look where they’re going. It would’ve been awful if she, or any of her limbs, had fallen over the curb just as the bus was pulling up! I shudder to think of it.

Attentiveness is what is gone from the person on the watchtower ... one needs to be SET!

Could be the shaft of a lifetime or Moses!
 
Closest I came to this was Dad and I chatting with the then Mayor of Kitchener during a concert intermission back in the eighties. Nice guy and a decent mayor as these things go. Lasted a long time in office, too.
Would the mayor have been Dom Cardillo? Was my neighbour - I used to babysit their kids :)
 
Today I was disturbed by a lunchtime encounter in Hamilton. I was there at a conference; went out & picked up a shwarma for lunch & decided to eat in the park near city hall as it was a lovely sunny day. As I approached city hall, I saw there was some sort of demonstration going on. Turned out to be yellow vest group, Wolves of Odin, and other anti-immigrant, anti trans, homophobic, anti-NATO protesters. Flags & nasty signs - some for the PPC. There were also many anti-Trudeau signs - he was apparently somewhere in Hamilton today. Wolves of Odin were involved in some scuffles recently at a PPC rally in Hamilton. Nearby there were some counter-protesters - mostly, but not all women - a choir "No Hate in the Hammer" (Hammer is nick name for Hamilton) singing songs of peace & inclusion; some with rainbow flags & signs supporting diversity; one fellow with a NO WAR sign. While it was peaceful, there was a sense of tension. I talked to young woman walking her dog in the park who told me this happens EVERY Saturday around lunchtime - since at least January when she moved to the area. The protestors have reportedly been intimidating and verbally abusive to passers by, even to children. When I finished lunch, I went & joined the choir people, talked to a few others. It left me feeling profoundly disturbed.
 
Today I was disturbed by a lunchtime encounter in Hamilton. I was there at a conference; went out & picked up a shwarma for lunch & decided to eat in the park near city hall as it was a lovely sunny day. As I approached city hall, I saw there was some sort of demonstration going on. Turned out to be yellow vest group, Wolves of Odin, and other anti-immigrant, anti trans, homophobic, anti-NATO protesters. Flags & nasty signs - some for the PPC. There were also many anti-Trudeau signs - he was apparently somewhere in Hamilton today. Wolves of Odin were involved in some scuffles recently at a PPC rally in Hamilton. Nearby there were some counter-protesters - mostly, but not all women - a choir "No Hate in the Hammer" (Hammer is nick name for Hamilton) singing songs of peace & inclusion; some with rainbow flags & signs supporting diversity; one fellow with a NO WAR sign. While it was peaceful, there was a sense of tension. I talked to young woman walking her dog in the park who told me this happens EVERY Saturday around lunchtime - since at least January when she moved to the area. The protestors have reportedly been intimidating and verbally abusive to passers by, even to children. When I finished lunch, I went & joined the choir people, talked to a few others. It left me feeling profoundly disturbed.
Yikes! Sounds like quite an unpleasant lunch-hour!
 
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